A Life Unknown

The Mess You've Made

Jace and Clary found their way to their bedroom. "How did you come up with the name 'Jamie?'" Clary asked her boyfriend.

"Just a name that's been floating around my head for some time." He responded.

"For anyone in particular?"

Jace out a finger to his chin and shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe for a girl with no known past who didn't know her name." He laughed and pushed their door open.

"Jace." Clary said in a tone that let him know she was serious. "Do you want kids?"

"Someday. Maybe in a few years, after we're married. Why do you ask?"

"Well, I can't help but think that you chose that name for one of your kids."

"One? So we will have many?" Jace joked.

"Maybe." Clary joked back. She walked over to Jace, who gladly pulled her into a hug and kiss. It had been a long, tiring day and Clary wanted nothing more than to relax with Jace. Sadly, those plans were interrupted when they heard screams coming from down the hall.

Jace ran from the room before Clary had time to react, though she followed closely after him.

"Jamie?" Jace said at Jamie's door. He tried to open the door, but it had been locked from the inside. "Jamie! Let me in!" He tried and tied again with no luck. He ended up kicked the door open.

"Jamie?" Clary called. She and Jace searched the room, finding a broken mirror and blood on the closet floor.

"She's not in here." Jace said, still searching the rest of the room.

"She has to be." They searched almost every inch of the room before Clary thought to look in one last place. The empty chest at the end of the bed. She lifted the lid and found Jamie looking back at her, only she looked a bit different. It took Clary a moment to realize that Jamie's hair color had changed and her shirt was covered in blood.

"Clary!" Jamie said, jumping out of the chest. "He was here. He tried to take me away." Jamie clung onto Clary, begging not to be taken away.

"Who was here?" Clary asked in confusion. "And what did you do to your hair?"

"My keeper. He came for me. He sent a someone to get me. ID you get rid of them?"

"No one was here." Jace said.

"They were! They were in the closet." Jamie protested.

"What did they look like?" Jace asked.

"She had my face, but with black hair. She took my hair."

Jace had started to piece together what happened. "Jamie, come here." He said. "Come look in the mirror." Jace opened the bathroom door and gestured for Jamie to come with him. She did, she stood beside Jace, but didn't look in the mirror. "Look."

"That's her! Jace!" Jamie tucked her face into Jace's chest and cried. "Make her go away. I don't want to go back!"

Jace felt a familiar pain in his chest. He wrapped his arms around her and wanted to cry. He couldn't decide if he wanted to cry with her or for her.

"Jamie." He said. "That's your reflection. No one is coming to get you."

"But... My hair. I don't understand."

"I think we should call Magnus back." Jace said to Clary.

After a few hours, Magnus arrived back at the institute with Alec. Jace was waiting for them in the foyer while Clary stayed in the room with Jamie while she cleaned up the mess.

"What happened?" Magnus asked.

"Something with Jamie. I don't really know how to describe it." Tears stung the backs of Jace's eyes as he thought about what happened. "She thought Asmodeus was coming for her. When she looked in the mirror, her hair changed color and she thought it was her keeper coming to take her back."

"Wait. Her hair changed color?" Alec asked and Jace nodded. "Like a warlocks mark?"

Jace hadn't thought about it like that. "I guess it could be. Why? What do you know?"

"Jem and Tessa have been following her case longer than us. It's a long story, but Jamie might be a warlock and it looks like she might be a daughter of Asmodeus."

"How... what..." Jace didn't know what to think.

"I don't want to get into it just now. I want to get everyone together first. Call a meeting in the library and I'll be there after I check on Jamie."

Magnus walked away in the direction of Jamie's room and left Alec and Jace in the foyer. They both walked together to find the others in the institute.

"So.." Jace started. "I see you two have made up. Are you going to tell me what that argument was about?"

"No, because it's none of your business. And we didn't exactly 'make up.' Magnus has been upset over the news about Jamie and I've been trying to comfort him." ALec thought for a moment. "You know he has many brothers and sisters, right?"

Jace nodded. "But he doesn't know any of them because they are in Edom."

"Yeah. I think the thought that any father would torture their own kids is upsetting him. He's going to talk about it in the meeting, but Jem and Tessa believe that Jamie was born only so Asmodeus could trade her as a 'slave' for warlocks and downworlders. She's literally only known torture and darkness her whole life."

Jace didn't feel that same pain in his chest, rather he now felt a ball of rage growing within him. He silently promised Jamie that if he ever had the chance, he would kill Asmodeus.